Börsipäev 2. jaanuar

Solid retail sales figures in November. Both Estonia and Latvia posted healthy retail sales growth figures in November. In Estonia, retail trade turnover increased 20% y-o-y in November, while in Latvia the growth figure came in even higher at +22.5% y-o-y. As expected, the growth of clothing and textile sales was one of the highest (Estonia +42% y-o-y, Latvia +50%), i.e. good times for Baltic garment retailers Apranga (Acc) and Baltika (Neutral) are to continue.

AvtoVaz to build new plant. At the end of December, AvtoVaz signed an agreement with the Canadian car parts manufacturer Magna on joint development and production of C-class cars, RIA Novosti wrote. According to the agreement, the two companies will invest jointly EUR 1.5 billion in a plant in Togliatti (Russia), which would enable to produce 450,000 cars per year. By 2009, the production capacity of 220,000 Lada models per year is expected. This is a good long-term news for Norma, which is one of the majors suppliers of seat belts for AvtoVaz.

Ventspils Nafta transshipment volumes. In November, Ventspils Nafta transshipped 0.4m tons of oil and oil products, the same amount as in Oct/06. In comparison, the company transshipped 0.5m tons of oil an oil products in Nov/05.

Tallink’s (Neutral) ship suffers minor damage. On Dec 31, Tallink’s Superfast VIII vessel broke loose from the dock in Rostock due to strong winds. Before the crew recovered control over the vessel, it hit the dock, slightly damaging the hull. Despite that, the vessel stayed in schedule and will be repaired during the next docking.

Income tax rate down by 1%. As of the 1st January 2007, the personal income tax rate in Estonia was cut by 1% from 23% to 22%. At the same time, the tax free minimum remains at its current level of EEK 2000 (EUR 128) per month.

Half of Estonians earn less than EEK 5500 per month. According to the calculations of Estonian newspaper Postimees, the median monthly salary in Estonia in Q3/06 was EEK 7300 (EUR 467), while the official average calculated by Estonian Statistical Office was EEK 9100 (EUR 582). The after-tax median salary is around EEK 5500 (EUR 351), which equals to the poverty line of a family of 2 children.